Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Never Died
Gabriel returned to the penthouse before midnight.
Victor Hayes was already there.
At sixty-three, Victor had the polished elegance of a man who had spent decades hiding brutality beneath expensive tailoring.
He stood beside the windows with a glass of bourbon.
"I heard you've been wandering around the South End."
Gabriel removed his coat.
"People talk too much."
"They talk because they're worried."
Victor studied him.
"You look better."
"I ate."
Victor smiled.
"Finally."
"A waitress cooked."
Victor's smile faded almost imperceptibly.
"A waitress?"
"Norah Bennett."
The bourbon glass stopped halfway to Victor's mouth.
There.
Tiny.
But Gabriel saw it.
"You know her?"
"No."
Too fast.
Gabriel walked closer.
"Interesting."
Victor drank.
"What's interesting?"
"Nothing."
Gabriel smiled.
"I've had a long day."
Victor left fifteen minutes later.
Gabriel waited until the elevator doors closed.
Then Leo emerged from the hallway.
"He knows her."
Gabriel nodded.
"And now he knows we're looking."
Norah spent that night at a secure apartment.
She hated it.
There were guards outside.
No bus noise.
No neighbors arguing through thin walls.
No familiar refrigerator hum.
At two in the morning, she found Gabriel in the kitchen.
He was eating.
Not much.
Bread dipped into leftover stew.
But he was eating.
"Can't sleep?" he asked.
"No."
"Welcome to the club."
Norah sat opposite him.
"Did you know Daniel?"
"I was thirteen when he disappeared."
"What was he like?"
Gabriel thought.
"Funny."
That answer surprised her.
"Hayes men are allowed to be funny?"
"Rare genetic mutation."
Norah smiled despite herself.
Gabriel continued.
"He didn't like the business. My father did. Victor loved it. Daniel hated everything about it."
"Why disappear?"
"Maybe because of you."
Norah looked down.
"My mother never said anything."
"Maybe she was protecting you."
"Everybody keeps protecting people with lies."
Gabriel stopped eating.
Norah immediately regretted saying it.
But Gabriel nodded.
"You're not wrong."
The next morning they traced an old monthly payment from one of Victor's shell companies.
It led to a private care facility two hours outside the city.
The patient was registered as David Hale.
Age sixty-one.
Admitted twenty-four years earlier.
Gabriel entered the room alone with Norah.
A thin man sat beside the window.
His hair was gray.
His hands shook.
But when he turned, Gabriel recognized him instantly.
"Daniel."
The man's eyes widened.
"Gabriel?"
Norah covered her mouth.
Daniel began crying.
Gabriel had imagined finding his uncle alive.
He hadn't imagined embracing him.
But he did.
Daniel held Gabriel with surprising strength.
Then he saw Norah.
Everything changed.
"Evelyn?"
Norah shook her head.
"I'm Norah."
Daniel stared.
"Her daughter?"
"Yes."
Daniel's knees almost gave way.
Gabriel caught him.
Daniel reached toward Norah's face but stopped before touching her.
"My daughter."
Norah cried before she could stop herself.
Daniel explained everything.
He and Evelyn had planned to leave the city.
Victor discovered Daniel had evidence proving Victor's theft.
Daniel was abducted before they could escape.
Victor couldn't kill his own brother without attracting suspicion, so he had Daniel declared dead unofficially and hidden under another identity.
For years, medication and isolation kept Daniel compliant.
Rosa eventually discovered he was alive.
But freeing him would have exposed Norah.
"So she waited?" Norah asked.
Daniel nodded.
"Until you were old enough."
Gabriel paced.
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because you worked with Victor."
Gabriel stopped.
Daniel's words struck harder than an insult.
"She thought I was like him."
"No."
Daniel shook his head.
"She feared you were surrounded by him."
That was worse.
Gabriel had spent his life building a fortress.
Victor had helped him build it.
Which meant Victor knew every entrance.
Every weakness.
Every person Gabriel trusted.
Daniel suddenly grabbed Gabriel's wrist.
"Paulie."
"What about him?"
"He tried to confess."
Gabriel stared.
"Paulie was helping Victor poison the organization years ago. But recently he wanted out."
Gabriel's stomach tightened.
Paulie had been poisoned two weeks earlier.
Daniel continued.
"Victor visited me the day before Paulie died."
Gabriel looked at Leo.
Everything aligned.
Paulie hadn't been poisoned because someone wanted to attack Gabriel.
Paulie had been silenced.
Gabriel's starvation and paranoia were collateral damage.
Or perhaps not.
Leo's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
"Boss."
"What?"
"We've got a problem."
Gabriel's penthouse security system had been breached.
Someone had entered his private office.
Gabriel rushed back.
Nothing appeared stolen.
Until Norah noticed the empty space on the desk.
"The recipe card."
Gabriel turned.
It was gone.
Then his phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
The faded recipe card was burning.
Below it:
YOUR MOTHER SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD THE FIRST TIME.
Then a second message arrived.
Ask Leo what his father did on October 17.
Gabriel slowly lifted his eyes toward his oldest friend.
Leo's face had gone white.
Because Leo finally knew what October 17 meant.
May you like
And he had been hiding it for sixteen years.
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